It's Homework Time!

The library was quiet, save the roaming voices of other students whispering to each other. Osmund had forgotten how peaceful the library was, having abandoned it as one of his hiding places in first year after realizing that although silence was a basic rule of the place, there was no guarantee that people who knew you would not speak to you. When Osmund wanted to be alone he needed to be alone and the library just didn't fulfill that. However, he returned to the place on this day for a different reason. Today he needn't grab a book and leave, but rather he came to work on homework, collaborating with a familiar face.

Having came earlier than the meeting time, Osmund had some time to peruse the sections and pull out a few books he thought might help him and Christian out with their assignment. As he exited from the rows of books, he spotted Christian within the library, perhaps waiting for him. Osmund made his way over, forcing a smile hello, and then placed the books down. "I found some stuff...it might help out or whatever."

For the mot part Christian liked to think he was pretty good in his classes but sometimes even he needed help with certain assignments and sometimes he just liked having some company when he had to work on a particularly long assignment. Not to mention that it wouldn't kill him to be sociable once in awhile. For a boy who knew a lot of people at the school the Cerisier wasn't very social he preferred to keep to himself most of the time, but oddly when he didn't come out of hiding it was usually to go do something with Osmund a Montagnard he met at the robe shop first year. Today the two pre-teen boys were meeting in the library to do school work.

Christian liked to be early rather than late so he headed to the library before the actual time that they were supposed to meet. He entered the library and started looking for a good table for them to sit at that would be away from most people when Osmund walked out from behind a book shelf. Even being early he was late compared to Oz. "Hey." He said in a kind of greeting before sitting down and reading over the tittles of the books that were on the table. "We can probably find a use for them." He answered simply before pulling out his stuff for the assignment.

Osmund nodded, spreading out the resources before them on the table. He wasn't much of a talker in the first place and even less of a talker when he wasn't entirely comfortable with the person. Not that Christian made him uncomfortable, he just didn't know the boy very well and all their previous conversations mainly involved Osmund complaining. He didn't know how regular people managed to strike up conversation with anyone they wanted, even if they had just met for the first time. He wished he had those skills so he could manage to talk to the boy he had known since first year.

Caught in the awkward silence, Osmund grabbed a book and thumbed through the pages. "So what do you want to work on first?" He asked, not even paying attention to the words on the page of the book he was looking at. "I already finished that Defensive spells essay. I suppose you can look at it, if you want, but I expect something in return." Even though he was excellent at DADA, he wasn't about to start handing out answers like that. With luck, he'd let Christian borrow his essay in return for some of the Herbology homework, for, Merlin knew he could use some help on that.

Christian started pulling out some of his school books and some pieces of parchment along with his ink pot and quill for awhile to busy himself in the silence. After all of the times these two boys had been together Christian still felt kind of weird being around the other boy. He didn't know what to say ever, Osmund was like all those girls he talked to who would talk for hours about almost anything he only talked about certain things otherwise you would get his hard replies. He wanted to consider him one of his mates but sometimes that seemed to be a stretch. Fortunately the conversation finally started talking about some of the assignments due. 

Osmund said he had finished his defensive spells essay which was the one essay Christian desperately needed help on and he could look at it for a price. He thought about that for a moment and remembered that just yesterday he had sat down quickly finished his about the venomous tentaculas. So he pulled it out and slid it across the table. "You can take a look at this if I can see the defensive spells essay." He offered, hoping it was enough cause he really had no idea what to do for the darned DADA essay at all.

The paper glided across the table smoothly until it was stopped by Osmund's hand. The Montagnard picked up the homework and studied it for a moment with a hard face before deeming it a worthy trade and handed over his essay. This wasn't what professor's considered actually doing homework. This was copying, perhaps even cheating, none of which Osmund cared much about. All he wanted was decent grades to impress his father and it didn't matter how he obtained them. The ends would justify the means.

His eyes glanced from the paper on the tentacula to Christian and back and forth again before he spoke up again. "This might do for a trade..." He started, faking a voice of disappointment in Christian's stellar work. "But perhaps if you add in something else with it, lets say...advice, it would be considered an appropriate trade." Osmund bargained, trying to keep his calm but in all honesty, he didn't know what he was doing. That seemed a common thing of him for this year; to do a lot of things without thinking first. 

"Have you..." He started, carrying on with whatever advice he wanted from Christian whether or not the boy would agree. "Have you ever kissed someone?" Osmund could feel color settling into his cheeks as he spoke. He needed to get this off of his chest, though.

Christian was pretty proud of the way he tossed that paper which was an odd thing to be proud of but it glided so smoothly over to Osmund. He watched carefully as the usually cold boy scanned his paper for a moment before looking back over to him and back and forth. It was a bit intimidating being stared at so intently by his mate it almost made Christian's skin crawl a bit as if he was being thoroughly examined for something. He started to answer saying it might do for a trade but his voice trailed off as if he wanted something more. He inwardly sighed knowing that of course Osmund was going to make this more difficult on him than it needed to be. 

Finally he revealed what the catch was, he wanted more than just he paper but advice as well. The other boy continued on as if Christian had already agreed, which he hadn't. The dark haired boy was kind of taken back by the question his mate asked him. "Possibly, why?" He asked curiously raising an eyebrow. That seemed like a rather odd thing to ask so randomly in the middle of a homework session.

The other boy didn't seem to be as enthusiastic about answering Osmund's question as he had hoped, for his answer was vague. He was about to threaten Christian with taking away his part of the bargain when he decided perhaps a bit of explaining was in order.

"I've been practicing...kissing, so I don't completely fail at it later in life," Osmund began his explanation, figuring it was better to just not beat around the bush and get to the point. Perhaps it was more information than he preferred to give out, but he needed to talk to someone besides his cat about this and this was a test for Christian. Could he trust this boy? 

"I don't know, I guess I'm just confused. Not about the actual doing of the kissing, I think I've worked out the rough points of that." He blushed at bit at the thought of his awkward first time, when his tongue rested uselessly in Xavior's mouth. "It's just...I've been practicing with my best mate. I don't know if that's right or not. I really like kissing him, though, and I think I'm getting pretty good at it, but should I stop?" He had abandoned the idea of trying to do homework in that moment and was focused on this topic. Even with the truth off of his chest, he still felt it lingering over his head and making him feel confused. Hopefully Christian could help with that.

Christian was a bit taken back by such a random topic in the middle of their homework time. Of all the things he had thought they could possibly talk about this was the farthest thing from anything he could have thought of. But obviously this was something that had been on Osmund's mind for awhile or else he wouldn't have brought it up so quickly into their conversation. So if this was something that had been bothering his mate then he would kindly listen and try to be as helpful as possible. So that's what he did, he didn't quite expect to hear what he did though. 

The usually cold sounding boy was telling him about how he had been practicing kissing of all things with his best mate. He watched as he told him about it and the more he talked it looked like his pale skin was turning pinker. After he stopped talking it took Christian a moment to gather his thoughts enough to answer. He had kissed a girl in his house a few times but they had kept that strictly between them because they didn't like each other enough to actually date each other and they didn't want anyone else to think that. So perhaps this is just like what Osmund was doing. "Well I guess it depends on hat you want to do. But it sounds like maybe you've moved past just simply practicing kissing if you think you're good now they the only reason to continue is if you have other feelings. Do you know how your mate feels about the practices?" He asked trying to be very careful with his wording so that it didn't sound weird or like he was trying to imply something that he was not.

His face was involuntarily changing colors as he spoke, he could tell by how warm his face felt and by how Chris was intently watching the transformation. "What are you looking at?" He growled at Christian, in order to make him look away. The other boy made it seem like him having emotions was some sort of sideshow act and he didn't like it.

Osmund was about to criticize Christian for not being of any help as he started to say that Osmund should do what he wanted. If he knew what he wanted, he would have done it already. Easy as that. The problem was, he didn't know what he wanted. He shook his head as Christian was starting to not make any sense at all. 

"He likes them...I think," Osmund replied, trying to keep his calm and answer the questions for he knew arguing would get him nowhere. "I mean, he's asked for them a few times." The last time they had practiced it was because Xavior had asked and that had to mean that he liked them if he wanted to practice more. Also, there was all that touching during their last snog. It was all so gentle and loving, Osmund had felt sincerely wanted. His face reddened again. "The last time we practiced, we were so close and call me crazy, but he was just touching me really gently..." he remembered the feeling of his fingers on his lips, the hand so warm on his leg. "I-I just think he really liked it, okay? So we should continue? It's not like he won't gain experience through these practices as well!" Osmund hurried away from the topic, his cheeks unusually colored.

Christian wasn't sure what to do anymore so he simply was left sitting there looking at Osmund waiting for an answer. However that option was soon gone as well for Osmund suddenly lashed out at him asking what he was looking at. The tone he used to say it in though was one that Christian had never heard the other boy use when talking to him. He had to admit it hurt a bit, not that he was going to let that show of course. He quickly ducked his head and started jotting down notes about things to say in his essay after scanning parts of the Montagnard's. 

The seriously confused thirteen year old continued to jot down notes on his parchment while still listening to his mate talk. The more Osmund talked though the more it sounded like he was reading something out of one of Christian's romance novels. It was obvious this was taking a toll on him this whole 'practicing' kissing thing for he had never heard the boy stutter this much when talking. Once he was sure the talking was over he hesitantly looked back up to speak. "Okay let me ask you something." He said hesitantly before continuing after he was sure he was going to be given the death glare. "Do you think you are a good kisser now?" It was starting to become clear to Christian what was going on here but it seemed like his mate did not truly want to hear that answer so this was going to be a delicate thing.

Osmund let his dark hair fall over his face to conceal some of the redness in his face, taking some time to cool off and recompose himself. He didn't move when Christian started talking again and kept his eyes low and focused on his hands. 

His stare remained averted as he opened his mouth to answer. "Ummm, yeah, I guess." The corners of his mouth tugged into a frown as he could tell where this was going. His question had been about whether or not he should stop these kissing practices, in regard to the welfare of Xavior. If Christian knew that Osmund was an excellent kisser, it would only stand to reason that the practices were no longer necessary. 

"But these practices are necessary! If I stop, I won't be in shape for when it really matters! And I might just be alright now, but I'll improve the more I do it and I could be really good in the future. Like amazingly good! Maybe Xavior should be the one to tell me to stop!" He hadn't realized how much he had wanted to keep with the practices and how much he needed someone to tell him that it was alright that he wanted that. It was when Chris was starting to tell him otherwise that he realized this and had become anxious to convince him otherwise, even throwing in the excuse that Chris had no right to tell him that even though it was himself who had asked him for advice and himself who had opted to not talk about this with whom he should've in the first place. With all this realization coming to his head, Osmund calmed down once more. "I should...I should talk about this with Xavior instead, shouldn't I?" He asked, feebly.